Art Diploma Blog Ellie Fisher: 4th May Creative Business Cards

On Thursday 4th May through my independent study I planned and prepared to complete my creative Business cards which explores the aspects of the miners’ strike and emphasises my knowledge and development of the project theme of "Industry". The creative business card has been developed from the research task, Pinterest studies and development pages to capture a final display and outcome. The piece was captured and taken from my final screen-print layer which reinforces the requirements to relate my work to the chosen project. The identical material (calico) was used to reinforce further the requirements and the connection between my development and project outlook. I decided to create a series of circular business cards to reinforce my research and development of the badges achieved from the strike movement. It highlights the importance of the campaign artwork and how the badges can be distributed from easily and manufactured. It emphasises the importance of industry and how the repeated pattern of badges and slogans are promoted which allows people to remember and gain further support. The task has allowed me to solve practical and theoretical problems when completing the business card layouts. Also, the task has allowed me to demonstrate the ability to plan, organise and produce the final business card layouts. Finally, the task has allowed me to demonstrate a range of practical skills in order to suit the design process to complete the Textile outcomes. As the creative business cards have been developed from my initial designs, it has allowed me to incorporate my career pathway of surface design and textiles efficiently. It has identified the skills I have gained through the workshop but also the connection between my progress of my final outcome and the screens I have created in order to adapt the style to create business cards.

To prepare for the task, I previously obtained a large piece of 1m cotton and transferred 50 designs onto the surface of the design. As I discovered that some of the screen prints were least successful due to in accurate measuring and display this meant I problem solved and created further designs to ensure the target required. As the piece was a non-restricted size compared to the corporate business card I was given the freedom to complete a creative card in any scale or form. As I was completing the process previously I maintained the business card to be small as I felt I wanted the pieces to be distributed easily and can be placed in wallets and bags well. The piece outlook and shape was also maintained and captured the theme of industry justice well through the form of badges shapes and outlooks. The simplicity of the design was inspirational as I could capture the textured layout efficiently and highlight the importance of the design to the miners’ strike and my development within the project. For the chosen colour scheme I decided to maintain my visual sheet and development research through a yellow background and black foreground appearance. This has allowed me to identify my analysis of experimentation the inspiration received through my developed research through artist studies and primary and secondary sources. As the warm colour of yellow is displayed, it contrasts with the dark and monotone colour black to complete and engaging piece. To plan and prepare for the fort background layer to be placed I used a ruler to measure out how many pieces could be fit onto the sheet. As I prepared for this accurate outcome of printing process this was least successful as the screen was large and difficult to move when placing the layers. To solve the problem I maintained the same method but placed the outlines close within each area to allow me to capture the required amount of 50 business cards. Also another problem I faced was that the screen included all of the design outlook which wouldn't allow me to capture the individual design required to complete the process. To overcome the problem, I placed news print over the areas in which wasn't required which could block the screen colour from coming through the design. As the screen was to produce 50 amounts it was difficult to capture as the designs would bleed and be damaged when the screen was placed across the surface. As this would create a spilt paint appearance which captures my project theme of “Justice” it would impact the surface of the design and the engaging background appearance of yellow used for the cards. As I felt personally this impacted the piece it did give a sense of individuality which does relate and sole the issue as creative business cards emphasise this subject matter perfectly. When using the black screen a problem I faced with the distribution was that it was damaging the screen and causing erosion around the outline of the design. This would impact the design if not problem solved and the solution was resolved as gum strip and newsprint protected the design outlook. To maintain the protection and the problem solving I gained and learnt, the process of transferring the design was repeated 5-10 times at different stages, washed and dried in the heat cupboard to avoid the risk of losing an effective layer from previous failed attempts. As it was a long process, the method was completed in two stages in which has been previously said within my blog entries. To speed the process but also maintain a high quality finish, a hairdryer was used in order to protect the designs and maintain the problem solving achieved from the process of transferring designs. Whilst completing the designs I faced further problems through measurements and the accuracy of transferring the layered outcomes. Due to the screen and colour choice this made the screen difficult to see the surface of the design underneath. This made some of the layers misplaced giving an inaccurate appearance. The problem effected the layout of the design because it didn’t achieve the full appearance and the original design layout causing negative space and a silhouette outlook. To resolve the issue for the developed designs further I used tracing paper for guidance which worked effectively and maintained a positive, completed layers of design. I was pleased with the outlook of the designs and were left to dry to allow me to complete the next process.

Business Card Progress

Whilst the pieces were drying I focused on my information that would be placed onto the business card. As I have progressed and developed my final outcome of the design, I planned the element in which would allow me to access information to be placed onto the screen-print samples. The planning included working back into my Textiles knowledge and workshop and it concluded that I would be using magic touch and transfer to access the transfer of fonts onto fabric surfaces. To gain access to the topic, I used word and created a series of text boxes that included 8 outlines on one A4 sheet. The process was created for 56 to plan in case of any errors or problems made whilst in production. I planned before the problems occurred to make sure I would achieve an accurate and effective appearance. To plan and achieve accurate measurements I gained the circumference of the circular pieces. As the measurement was gained, I used fabric scissors to cut out each individual piece to ensure a clean finish with no damage to the surface. This knowledge was previously gained from problem solving and cutting past fabrics with normal scissors causing damage to the design layout. As the pieces were achieved I gained the measurement of 8cm and this was reinforced and edited onto word. The measurement allow me to plan and adapt the lettering in order to fit the size. Next the documents were sent to reprographics in which I prepared and had the money to require the pieces. To ensure the magic touch paper to work, the designs were reversed on the photocopier to allow the information to be mirrored and placed effectively. Once the pieces were captured they were taken to the textiles studio. To ensure accurate measurements, I placed the pieces under the paper cutter to prepare for an equal finish and to be placed onto the surface quickly and effectively. Next the designs were placed on the heat press with the creative business cards.

Magic Paper

Health and safety was maintained throughout the heat transfer process, hands were placed away from the surface and iron to avoid the serious risk of injury. Also, hair was tied up to avoid risk of burning and college cards were placed away from machinery. To start the task the designs were placed faced down on the heat transfer with the magic touch paper. Then the heat press is placed onto the surface for 10 seconds at 120 degrees. Once the process was completed the paper was removed to reveal the outcome of the surface and transferred design. The process was repeated but problems were faced within the design process. As I placed more than one design onto the surface I couldn’t remove the paper within the time limit. To solve the problem and learn from the process I did the transfer one piece at a time to create an accurate finish. Also, another problem faced was that some screen printing dyes went through to the background of the design causing the information to be unclear within the surface. To solve the problem the information was placed onto separate calico to reveal the information clearly and then was transferred onto the back with glue. All 50 pieces were created and captured my project theme and design process. It has allowed me to plan my time efficiently and problem solve to complete the requirements.